Choose Tap
[DRAFT]

Project Overview

Choose Tap, an initiative by Yarra Valley Water, aims to promote the benefits of drinking tap water as part of a healthy lifestyle and positive alternative to bottled water. So why not make this easier for people by letting them know where publically accessible tap water is around Melbourne?The Yarra Valley Water Choose Tap application helps you to find tap water wherever you are in Melbourne. With more than 5000 locations, anyone using the iOS or Android app can find tap water when they need it.

Project Commissioner

Project Creator

Team

August

Project Brief

Yarra Valley Water worked closely with August to create an app for iOS and Android mobile devices that would not only inform users of tap water locations around Melbourne but would be easy to use on the go.

More than a billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water yet sometimes Melbournians take our quality tap water for granted. Considering that we spend more than $500 million a year on bottled water, it makes sense to find an alternative that is kinder to the environment.

The Choose Tap app not only includes tap water locations, it also lets users know about dog bowls, refill stations, BBQs and public toilets. Users can search by suburb, add a new tap location if they find one that hasn’t been tagged, report a faulty tap and share the app via Facebook and Twitter.

Project Need

The Choose Tap app was derived from a need to be more environmentally conscience and reduce our wasted expenditure on bottled water.Tap water represents value for money. It’s cheaper for the community than buying bottled water or other beverages. Yarra Valley Water believes that Melbourne’s tap water is amongst the best in the world for quality and taste. It’s also more environmentally friendly than bottled water. PET plastic bottles are the main packaging containers used for bottled water and Australia recycles less than 50% of PET plastic drink bottles. The rest are littered or landfilled.

The Choose Tap app enables people to save money, use less plastic and find clean drinking water around Melbourne with ease – and it’s all free to do so!

User Experience

The Choose Tap app is available on iOS and Android devices. Users can browse tap locations on the in-app map or through a list version. They can also get directions to the tap of their choice from their current location.

Users can search by suburb if they are planning a trip or find out details about the tap, or other services, if they are in their preferred location.

The app has had positive reviews on both app stores and some comments have included its usefulness for runners and cyclists.

The app contains more than 5000 locations and is continually growing.

Project Marketing

The Choose Tap marketing strategy combined the need for the app in the community with the benefits of choosing tap water. The Choose Tap social media channels, Facebook and Twitter, share messages promoting environmental sustainability, choosing tap water in a variety of social occasions and Choose Tap’s involvement in a range of events.

A key campaign by Yarra Valley Water - It Just Doesn’t Make Sense to Buy Bottled Water – saw their video go viral on YouTube. A Yarra Valley Water representative opens a store selling unique gift ideas such as ‘bottled sunshine’, ‘organic air’ and ‘bottled moonlight’. Shoppers appear perplexed at the thought of paying for air and the shop assistant ironically compares it to buying bottled water.

This campaign was powerful in engaging the user to think about not only the cost of buying bottled water but also the broader impact of choosing tap water over bottled water. The video has had over 200,000 views on YouTube since it launched and more than 7000 app downloads.

Project Privacy

Yarra Valley Water and August take privacy seriously. The Choose Tap app complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the recently updated Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This app does not collect private information from users and does not require users to submit any private information.